I have been wondering the same thing. I have a Tovala (which btw I saw advertised for $99 for Black Friday, if you are interested. ) Obviously, the Tovala and other countertops (which I think are around 1500 to 1800 watts) are less than a built in, which I think is 3500 watts. What does that translate to in terms of real life situations? I'd love to do a side by side comparison. Obviously the interior volume is much smaller. Does the built in cook quicker? Better? Even if it is $250 (full price)as compared to the built in plumbed MieIe XXL I was looking at, Does the Miele cook $5000 better? If I buy the XL MieIe unplumbed that is a few thousand dollars less but still more than a counter top. I would love to know the answers.

I can only answer for my countertop. If you are not familiar with the Tovala, you can get the oven and you can get prepared shipped meals. which are actually quite good. The ovens are wifi enabled and have an app, You can program from the app or on the oven. You scan the icon to cook the prepared meals, you can cook from a small library of their recipes or program in your own combinations. The settings are toast, reheat, steam, bake and broil. Everything has come out really well. I use all the settings and the reheat is great. I refresh bread, have baked and cooked in it.

I have packed up my kitchen for renovation and will be moving out but in the meantime, I have made breakfast, lunch and dinner with it. There are a number of Trader Joes items and some other labels which are compatible with the scan and cook feature. I don't use my microwave any more to reheat.

So between that, my air fryer, my instant pot and hopefully my new range in my new kitchen, do I need a built in steam oven?

So with all these items, one is looking at $300 to $400 as compared to a few thousand.

I am not sure if you are familiar with another countertop oven, the Brava which uses light not steam. It is a lot more expensive at around $1000. It also uses a lot of computerized commands. Even though it doesn't have steam, it seems from the reports in the Facebook group pertaining to it that it does a great job, Everyone loves it. Different parts of the oven cook differently so one can make a full meal by placing the different parts of the meal in different sections.

I just saw that they have teamed up (sold ?) to Middlebury corp so am wondering if it will go down in price and/or will Middlebury start incorporating their technology into their products.

Would love to read a definitive answer to your question.

I have the Cuisinart countertop convection steam oven and we love it. It’s the most used appliance in out kitchen. We use it to make toast, to bake and reheat.

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/cuisinart-reg-steam-and-convection-oven/1041571088/

For reheating, I'd guess if you choose a well thought of model it'll do you just fine. It's a low temperature with steam kind of thing.

I have a Gaggenau, the original combi-steam, residential ovens. It's plumbed in, so other than descaling every 4-5 years, it's pretty hands off. It doesn't toast, though I think newer models do. The newer models are also, I believe, supposed to do regulated temperatures for sous vide cooking.

I just steam roasted a pumpkin for pie. It was pretty dry inside. I was originally going to get a new pumpkin for pie, but there were none. By roasting on 30% steam, I was able to get it to just the right texture, moist, and the flavor is excellent from the roasting.

I steam roast chickens at 60% steam, and plain steam veg at 100% steam (temperature just around boiling).

The magic of steam reheating is when you have a dished up plate, with meat, veg and starch. You can put the plate in as served and it will come out with everything gently heated, nothing petrified or overcooked or cold in the middle (especially if it's not too too thick). This is also great for meat pastries and similar that are hard to handle and heat.

So for the reheating, the question is size. Will the countertop model hold enough? Depending on how thick the items on the plates are, I can fit 4-6. There are bigger models on the market now.

BUT... you can do the same thing in a regular oven if yours goes to a low enough temperature (I can't remember the number off hand, but under 200° F. Place a hotel or sheet pan with boiling water beneath your shelf of plates and let it warm for 10 minutes or so. Maybe a bother and imperfect, but with a little practice you can get it to be good enough.

Same with the crusty breads, great chicken, the vegetables and everything else that's great in a combi-steam oven. You can achieve the same things in other ways, but it sure is a nice thing to have.

Just for reheating? I wouldn't go for built-in unless it were a daily thing.

Thanks everyone! I guess I'm a skeptic and we keep wavering back and forth.

For the record:

1) I don't bake bread or pastries.

2) We like blackened fish - can the steam oven do that?

3) I use my Instant Pot a lot for beef roasts (if from frozen) or I do a "long and low" in the oven - both come out amazing.

4) We use our Traeger smoker for steaks usually unless the outdoor weather is prohibitive and then we pan sear and finish in the oven. I could see a steam oven being helpful for this.

5) DH doesn't like chicken or turkey (we raise beef cattle!) so the odds that I'll be cooking any roasted chicken or turkeys in my lifetime are slim to none.

6) Most of our veggies come from frozen - I just pop them into our steamer basket over boiling water for a few minutes and voila!

7) I never even used the convection feature on our last set of double ovens :/

DH is most interested for the reheating abilities but I'm now thinking that a countertop steam oven is the way to go for those. I'm just not sure that an expensive built-in steam oven will totally transform my cooking. I can do a lot with the $4-5K these things cost. However, we are going to make the trek to the nearest dealer (3 hours away) and see what all the hype is about :)

Thanks, M, for your perspective. I think we will try the countertop steam oven....DH may even get one for Christmas ;)

Take a look at the Cuisinart one - I learned about it here a while back (I think cpartist has one?), and it's pretty awesome. And read through the forums here for tips/tricks/ideas:

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/146617-cuisinart-combo-steamconvection-oven-part-1/

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/152212-cuisinart-combo-steamconvection-oven-part-2/

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/153705-cuisinart-combo-steamconvection-oven-part-3/

From what you describe, I think a countertop steam oven will be all you need. and you can keep the xtra few thousand dollars. Some of them have a free trial period. If you don't like it, send it back.

Cuisinart has apparently discontinued theirs but some are still available. I just ordered one from Amazon for $159.99.

If I add a little water to my air fryer does it function as a steam oven? What is the difference if any?

It doesn't "function as a steam oven" but it should add moisture and may be sufficient for your purposes. Putting a dish or tray of water in a conventional oven is a technique dating back to the original oven. If your air fryer has shelves, or you're not using the stirring wand, you can put a dish of water in it, too. The main thing is that unless your air fryer has a steaming setting, or similar, be careful not to splash inside, or create too much steam for it to handle. You might also want to do a (careful not to burn your fingers) quick wipe when you're done if there's a lot of condensation. The air fryer should be made to take plenty of steam and condensation--I'm jsut talking about if you steam in it often, or with a great deal of wet, if it's not specifically set up to handle it.

That is a smart way @plllog I am just pouring half cup of water at the bottom. The coil and fan is at the top. Spraying water on the food item itself may be another way. Once the water evaporates, then it does the regular convection bake.